The end of the Christmas octave
Post for December 31, 2007
And I’m spending it doing back posts…
30 minutes to 2008!
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Reading, reading, and more reading
Post for December 30, 2007
And so how, exactly, have I been spending my week between Christmas and Jan 1? Reading, reading, and more reading. I have 5 books with me, and when I get bored with one I just switch to another. Watch for some book reviews on Adventus.org once I am through!
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Happy birthday to my sister!
Post for December 29, 2007
She turns 32 today. We had a whole slew of people over for dinner, and I think she really enjoyed herself.
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Dinner with friends
Post for December 28, 2007
I drove into Montreal today to spend some time with friends at a special dinner a couple of them organize every year. A good time was had by all!
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In Ottawa
Post for December 25, 2007
Merry Christmas to all blog readers!
I’m in Ottawa visiting family. I’ll be here until New Years. Blogging will be spotty.
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Welcome to any CBC listeners!
Post for December 24, 2007
I had a chance to be on CBC Daybreak Montreal this morning. I got there about 7:15 am, and was on the air at about 7:40 (happily the CBC building is just down the street, so I didn’t have to drive too far). The interview lasted about 15 minutes, where we spoke about my blog, as well as the presence of the Catholic Church on the internet. I think it went well, and so did a few parishioners who spoke with me later this evening saying “Hey, I heard you on the radio!” A star is born… 
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LOTS of catching up to do!
Post for December 23, 2007
Yes, I have been extremely busy in the near-Christmas rush! So I’m doing back posts going back to December 14.
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Christ’s two names
Post for December 23, 2007
My latest homily, for the 4th Sunday of Advent 2007
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Fixed my RSS feeds
Post for December 23, 2007
I have two Adventus.org RSS feeds in the sidebar. Unfortunately, they just decided to stop updating one day. A search through the source code revealed that WordPress uses an old version of Magpie, an RSS feed parser. So I hacked around a bit, and got it to work now, including with UTF-8 encoded output. Yay!
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If there is one thing I hate more than Christmas parties…
Post for December 22, 2007
…it’s Christmas shopping. And today was the day.
That being said, I don’t actually “shop” — I purchase. I make a list of all the person’s I need to get a gift for, consult with appropriate parties to see what gifts would be good, and then plan a shopping route using the Net. I headed out to the downtown malls at 1:30 pm, and had it almost all done by 3. Now all I’ve got is the wrapping!
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Visit to (another) sick priest
Post for December 21, 2007
Today I got in my car and headed to the south shore to visit with a brother priest who apparently is suffering from some sort of mental disorder. He has just been released from the psychiatric wing of a major hospital and is resting at a friend’s place. He was suffering from serious delusions, such that he was giving away all his possessions and was convinced that he was in Hell. Yeesh. Anyway, he feels a lot better now, but his condition is still clearly unstable. I’ve given my cell phone # to the friend he is living with, in the case another psychotic episode erupts, and if that occurs we’ll see if he goes back to the hospital or to our diocesan infirmary.
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The experience of “authority”
Post for December 20, 2007
Today I had my monthly Jesu Caritas group, a group of 5 priests who gather to pray together, share on our ministry experiences, and offer mutual support.
My personal sharing was on the experience I’ve been having lately of being an “authority” within the diocese. That doesn’t mean that I’m *in* authority — I don’t occupy a position that shares in any sort of executive power. Nevertheless, by being within the diocesan structure, including as head of a couple of committees, I become a reference point for people, and by that same token acquire a sort of “authority” whether I expect/desire it or not. This was driven home to me during the regional Christmas parties I attended this year: FAR more people knew who I was than vice versa. It was really odd, and something that I’ll just have to get used to I guess, for as long as I am at 2000.
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Pulling back from the healing ministry
Post for December 19, 2007
I had a meeting of the steering committee of the diocesan healing ministry, and I informed them that I was going to be taking a “sabbatical” from being their diocesan liaison (and de facto chaplain). From the looks on their faces, they weren’t too happy.
And to be honest, I am not too happy about the situation either. Yet I really feel I don’t have a lot of choice. My schedule is just *packed*, such that I’ve even dropped one of the courses I am teaching at Concordia (the THEO 331 course). I have a feeling my responsibilities at 2000 are going to grow further in 2008, so I just need to be ready.
Still, I am hoping to not be totally “out of it” for the healing ministry. I’d like to keep my hand in the “strategic” planning, because there are a number of things we’ve planned for the future growth of the ministry and I’d like to see those things happen. I’ve asked the diocese to give me a “partner priest” who offer a hand where needed and eventually take over if and when it becomes necessary. We’ll see.
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Meeting planning
Post for December 18, 2007
Every year in February the Cardinal meets with the young priests of his diocese, and organizing this meeting is one of my tasks. Happily, I have a small committee to help me in this duty, and we met today in Laval over pizza.
This year’s session will be February 27, at the Grand Seminary, in the afternoon. Given that this year will be the special Eucharistic Congress in Quebec City, the special focus of discussion for our meeting will be the Eucharist. Of course, there will also be the usual times of common prayer and fellowship that are so important for this sort of gathering. There are plenty of details to still get organized, but I am looking forward to this day already.
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Visiting with a friend
Post for December 17, 2007
I had my 20-year high school reunion three months ago (which was a total blast) and it gave me a chance to catch up with people I had not seen for…um…20 years! Of course, you know how these things go: you look at each other, chat, and then say “Let’s call each other and get together!” The challenge afterwards is to actually call each other and get together…
Well, they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and I have no intention of winding up in hell! So today I had the pleasure to get together with my old friend Linda (not that she is old, of course — you know what I mean). I picked her up with the intention that we would go for lunch, as I had other things programmed for that day. Well, lunch took three hours — we just gabbed and gabbed and gabbed (and she read me a children’s book she wrote). Turns our Linda has traveled the world — she’s been all over Asia (living in Japan and Hong Kong) and Europe (living in Holland afterwards). What a fountain of stories she was!
It is so interesting to see how some of the people I knew in high school turned out, and I guess I’m one of the bigger surprises myself. I hope I get a chance to do this again with everyone!
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Listening to Lizann
Post for December 16, 2007
Lizann Albanese is a parishioner of St. Brendan’s parish, where I do my Sunday ministry, and this evening she held a concert in the parish church for the launch of her album If You Believe. Given the major snowstorm (20 inches!) I did not go to the concert, but she did give me a free copy of the CD earlier so I made sure to listen to it. I noticed in the liner notes that she offered thanks to the parish and its pastor, which I thought was a nice touch. You can get a good intro listen to her music on her Myspace page.
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Visiting our elder brothers
Post for December 15, 2007
This evening a group of young priests of Montreal visited the Ignace Bourget home, where some of our elderly priests live (and can, if necessary, receive medical care). A group of close to 20 of us gathered in a meeting room downstairs, to share on our lived experience and our hopes for the future.
One priest had an interesting perspective, regarding (of all things) persecution. He stated that he believed that the church of the future may face very tough times, with various persecutions both overt and covert. He wanted to encourage us, saying that wherever there is persecution it is a sign that Christ is truly being proclaimed. I must admit, I am in total agreement. The worst thing is to be cowed into silence and submission. We can have faith, but we need hope to make it truly alive. And hope does not come from confidence in current favourable circumstances, it comes from confidence in the victory of Christ.
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English Christmas party
Post for December 14, 2007
This evening was yet another Christmas party with the Cardinal, only this one was with the English sector. At this one, at least, I am not a stranger! It was good to be among “my people”.
Listening to the Cardinal’s speech, I had to admit that it really sounded different than when he gives it in French. I don’t just mean the language, I mean the message: the English and French experiences of church have been somewhat different over the course of history, and I found the speech had quite a different impact for the English audience than for the French audience. Still, the basic message was the same: we need to move forward to build a “new” church here in Quebec, one founded especially on loving service to others. With that, I am in total agreement.
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Christmas party networking
Post for December 13, 2007
I love Christmas. But I hate office Christmas parties. I always have. And yet, in the role I have now I have SIX of them to attend. I’ll probably duck out of a couple, but tonight’s Laval party was my first for this season.
With regards to these sorts of functions, sometimes you go to these things to see, sometimes to be seen, and in my role within the diocese it is important I make myself better known so that I can be a more effective resource person for brother priests etc. Tonight was an excellent case in point: I got a chance to chat extensively with the superior general of the Société des Missions-Étrangères. I’ve been wanting to get in touch with this group for some time to see how we might put in place some sessions to help our foreign priests become more inculturated, but I never knew who to call. Until tonight. I was chatting with one guy, who introduced me to someone else, who pointed out a third person, who turned out to be the superior general — and now I have his business card and we will be in contact in the new year.
I guess these things *can* have their uses, after all.
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Helping the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism
Post for December 12, 2007
This evening was a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism (of which I am the Treasurer). I made a presentation at the meeting, discussing the current state of our Membership Register and how it can be renewed. My plan was accepted 100%, unanimously! So I must confess, I am very pleased with myself. I had worked hard on it, sifting through 30 years of meeting minutes to try and get a solid grip on where we were with membership issues. But it has paid off, and I feel that yet one more piece of the ongoing work of renewal for the Centre is happening.
At some point the Canadian Centre of Ecumenism will be soliciting new memberships, and when that happens I’ll be sure to post something. If you have a particular passion for promoting Christian unity or inter-faith dialogue, keep us in mind!
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Just say NO to gossip
Post for December 11, 2007
For reasons of confidentiality I obviously cannot go into any details, but within my work in the personnel office I recently came across a case of a brother priest who some years ago was falsely accused of having an affair with a woman. I do not use the word “falsely” with any reservation: she was known to be psychologically unbalanced, and she had mentioned to some people beforehand that she was going to make stuff up against this priest to get at him for her own bizarre reasons. This priest has never had any blotch on his ministry or reputation before or since. Despite our confidence in him, however, you can imagine that it still put him through a very difficult time.
I have one thing to ask of my readers: if you ever hear of rumours against a priest, please (1) offer the priest the benefit of the doubt, and (2) do NOT repeat rumours, ever. If fact, those who gossip should be rebuked, as I have done myself on occasion (gently and pastorally, of course). The Bible teaches that gossip is a sin, in fact, and since much of a priest’s work depends upon his good reputation, participating in such a sin can greatly damage his ministry and the well-being of those who depend on it.
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Last osteopathy session
Post for December 10, 2007
I’ve been seeing an osteopath recently, due to recurring pains in my left shoulder. I’ve got to say, the guy has been amazing. He was able to identify certain other injuries and pains that I’ve felt just by looking at my posture and doing a couple of minor tests.
In his opinion, he shoulder pains are actually related to an injury I sustained a couple of years ago playing squash, when I cracked two ribs. According to him, certain rib and shoulder muscles were used to compensate for the reduced mobility elsewhere, and that led to an imbalance that I’ve still got today. (It also explains why my golf swing never recovered.) The real start of healing, then, will be to “loosen up” the ribs, and then do some athletic therapy to strengthen the shoulders and upper back.
I must say, I’m very excited by this. I start the athletic therapy next week with an evaluation, and I get a sense that I really am on a good track to becoming more active.
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God’s plan of harmony
Post for December 9, 2007
My latest homily, for the 2nd Sunday of Advent.
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The Eucharist in the life and ministry of a deacon
Post for December 8, 2007
I preached a pair of reflections today on the subject of the Eucharist in the life and ministry of a deacon. This was a sequel, you might say, to a set of reflections I preached last year on the topic of prayer in the life of a deacon. It was all in the context of a day of recollection organized by the office for the permanent diaconate, which is part of the department that I work for at 2000.
If you’d like to give these files a listen, you can get all of them here.
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Happy anniversary to me
Post for December 7, 2007
Today is my 6th anniversary of ordination. It has been a wild ride, but a joyful one. I’ve come to realise that I really have absolutely no idea what God has in store for me — I could never have predicted or planned my first six years of priesthood, so I’m just going to turn it all over to the Lord and let him keep surprising me.
And how did I celebrate this anniversary? Last night, some of the boyz (and fellow bloggers) took me out to the Old Dublin pub for a beer. And this evening, I took in a flick: The Golden Compass, for which I have written a review.
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A pleasant encounter
Post for December 6, 2007
I had one of the foreign priests come to visit me today at my office, just to touch base and let me know how things are going with him. He is here for studies, and has been a great help to us in one of our parish clusters. He let me know that he will be going back home at the end of this academic year (a year early), but that his bishop is going to try and see if he can be sent for further studies in another institution afterwards. Good for him! I offered to write him any letters of reference he might need to help facilitate being accepted for a program or a scholarship, and he said he’d keep that in mind. Finally, I asked him if it might ever be possible to go visit him in his country, and he really brightened up. So who knows, maybe I’ll be off to West Africa some day.
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Final exam
Post for December 5, 2007
Today was the final exam for my students in the seminary. They’ve worked hard all semester, and it has been a real pleasure being their professor. And now, the corrections!
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Off to Kinshasa
Post for December 4, 2007
I’ve had quite a day today. I’ve written in the past about a sick priest I visited, and today was the day of his flight back home to the Congo. It turns out his condition is terminal, and he wants to go home to die surrounded by family and friends. Easier said than done, though!
First, there was the question of his plane ticket. I had purchased it last Friday, but because it was a paper ticket it could not be issued right away. This meant somebody had to go and get it from the travel agency, so I called them up this morning to inform them that I was sending someone (a brother priest, Father JH) to do just that. The travel agent, however, had some shocking news: “Monsieur, someone already came yesterday to get it.”
Huh?
“And who was that?” I asked. “I don’t know,” she replied, “he said he was the priest’s nephew.” I then informed her that he had no family here, that the phone number he gave her was actually the number of the priest himself, and that I could not understand why she gave away a ticket without checking first for proper authorization. She then proceeded to somehow try and lay the blame on *me*, and to absolutely refuse to help with any sort of replacement ticket. At that point my blood pressure started to rise, and given that I was driving I decided to hang up and call her once I got to my office.
Our next conversation took place shortly thereafter, when Father JH showed up at her office. She called me, someone panicked now, asking who this guy was. “It is the gentleman I told you would be coming to get the ticket, Madame. I assume he identified himself in such a way that you knew he was from me?” Something, of course, that the previous guy had not done at all. Again, she tried to deflect any responsibility, and at that point I came within a hair of just losing it. All I had was this image of an elderly brother priest trying to get home for his last days while he still has the strength to do it, and this travel agency totally screwing it up and refusing to help solve the problem.
I told Fr. JH to get home and check on the situation of our traveller, basically to see what the h*** was really going on and get some control of things. I want to publicly thank him, as he did a great job and kept me totally informed. In the end the ticket did show up, but we were then faced with another problem: the visa.
You see, the priest was travelling to Africa via London, and the British require (in some cases) a transit visa just to be able to use the airport. This was a borderline case, but we knew there was no way to get a visa in time, even in the next few weeks. The British consulate was unfortunately no help whatsoever, because just that past week they stopped issuing visa’s entirely (it is now taken care of by a contractor called WorldBridge). I called WorldBridge and explained the situation, and whoever they had working the phone knew less than I did about the visa requirements. So we decided to take a chance, and the Cardinal Archbishop helped out by signing a very impressive letter of recommendation for the priest (on letterhead, with the official seal no less). I hoped it would help tip the scales in the elder priests’ favour.
And then, we had to get to the airport. In yesterday’s blog entry I mentioned that it had snowed, and in fact it had not stopped. It took an hour just to get out of downtown. Once we were on the highway, mind you, things went pretty smoothly, and parking was a cinch at the airport itself. The lady at the check-in desk was super friendly, and when she saw the passenger was a priest she pulled out all the stops for good service, especially after I privately explained the reason for the elderly priest’s trip. Not only did she allow his luggage (which was way overweight) to pass without extra charge, she even upgraded him to a business class seat for the transatlantic journey, just so that he could be more comfortable. As it turned out, she was a fellow believer, and between tagging bags and checking tickets we had a great conversation about the rosary and the miraculous medal and so on. I was actually really touched.
Shortly after the boarding passes had been issued, I got a call on my cell phone from a colleague who used to work in immigration affairs and who did some checking for me on the visa question. It turned out that he *DID* need a visa after all, and he could very likely be turned away at Heathrow and prevented from taking his connecting flight to Nairobi. Well, it was too late now — the bags were gone, the boarding passes issued, and so on — so the priest decided to take his chances and head to London. I needed to get back home, so I said my goodbyes, and he promised to remember me in his first mass back on African soil. I hope he makes it.
UPDATE: He made it! We got a call this Thursday confirming that me made it all the way to Kinshasa. Praise the Lord.
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Winter is here
Post for December 3, 2007
I woke up to several inches of snow on the ground, as well as on my car. The good news is I have winter tires. The bad news is they were sitting in the back seat of my car. Still, the all-seasons I had on were had only one summer of wear on them, so they did pretty good getting me out of the side street and over to the local Frisby Tire for the swap. I really wanted to get this done, though, as I knew I had to get back to Montreal tonight.
The drive home was uneventful, if a bit slow. At least I know have had a chance to get caught up in my blogging! Hooray!
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Corrections!
Post for December 2, 2007
Correcting papers! Yuck! But I have to get it done, as the students need the corrected papers posted on the course web site in order to help them study. Ah well, it’ll help some souls get out of purgatory.
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Anniversary mass for my uncle
Post for December 1, 2007
One year ago I was in Germany at this time, presiding the funeral mass of my uncle Ben in the parish church in Legden. Today I presided the anniversary mass in Ottawa, at my parent’s parish of St. Maurice.
The mass was simply the regular parish weekday mass, but I’ve gotten to know the priests there quite well, so when they heard I would be present they just turned it all over to me. I appreciate that trust! Several members of my extended family were present, including aunts, uncles and cousins. It was nice to see everyone there, even if it was to commemorate a sad occasion.
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